Week 12

Hola familia,

 

yet another week down. it was a pretty good week, the first without a baptism though haha. its funny how i'm used to having baptisms every week, the work is really progressing here in honduras. well let me think what i did this week...we have 9 people with baptismal dates next month...possibly 11. we'll see. its been amazing to see how much success we have been having. its really what keeps me going. although we are having a lot of trouble finding new investigators though. any suggestions for door approaches from my brothers and brother in law? im not really sure what to do haha.

 

last pday was alright. we just emailed, then went shopping, then went back to the house and cleaned a bunch. did laundry too...it sucks without a washing machine, my knuckles were like raw after cleaning all my clothes on the concrete wash board haha. the rest of the zone went to go hang out somewhere but i guess elder perez didnt want to go, so we just sat around in the house all day. we were super excited though because we finally got a fan that we were waiting on from the mission office for the last 3 weeks because out other one broke, but when we were putting it together we found out it didnt have a motor...haha. this week ive had a pretty bad cold and little bit of a fever, and it doesnt help that im not really getting any rest either. we only take 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for dinner every day. and then its back to climbing up these sides of mountains.  the spanish is coming along slowly but surely...i have my good days and i have my bad days. but everyday it gets a little better. im understanding more but its still super hard to formulate how im going to respond in spanish in my head. oh and i should probably explain the new training program for the mission field. before i th ink it was only a 6 week training program but now its 12 weeks with an additional hour of companionship study everyday. But with the new training, supposedly the new missionary is supposed to be able to be a trainer after. the zone leaders told me that they think that i might be training in a few more transfers...im not sure what to think of that. i can barely speak spanish, i dunno how i could train someone else haha.  but last thursday was pretty fun, there was leadership training all day so i went on exchanges with elder polamalu and i showed him around San Rafael, when we contacted with him we got a lot of positive contacts. then on sunday we had 5 investigators in church, it was a really good sunday too. the stake president spoke and really recognized the investigators and made them feel super welcomed. also there was a family that has been innactive that we got to start coming back to church. the family has 13 kids with their single grandmother so it was pretty cool to see their effort to get to church.

 

anyways, what else is goin on at home? well...i guess john and kelli are the only ones at home. wow thats weird to think about haha. how was aidens birthday? oh and i also just got moms package with the ties today! thank you!! when did you send it? well we dont have much time left. sorry no pictures today ill try to send some next week. btw thanks everyone for the letters and emails. i got matts dear elders and also a few letters from friends.

 

i love you all. youre in my prayers.

 

Elder Archibald

Week 11

 

 

Hey family,

 

first off thank you so much for the emails from everyone. i love you all so much. the mission is hard, thats for sure, but i know that ill get through this rough time.  but anyways, its been raining A LOT. rains every day SUPER hard. and there is sooooo much mud. ive been using my goretex shoes pretty much all the time and my feet have been kept pretty dry so thats good.

 

last pday was awesome, we came to the church and emailed (the keyboards are really weird and thats why i hardly put in punctuation haha) after that we played soccer, americans vs the natives haha. it was really fun. after that i got a haircut and a shave at a barber shop here. it only cost like 35 lemps (which is like a buck fifty i think). then we went shopping for groceries...its really hard to shop because i dont know what good prices are yet and i dont really know what the food is haha...so its a learning experience.

 

the 15th was independence day here. it was NUTS. everyone was lighting off these homemade fireworks (bombs) and they were SOOO loud. it was sweet. but the funny thing is that the next day, after the local soccer team won there match, there was more fireworks lit off than during independence day.

 

this week weve been eating a lot more authentic food. i had my first baleada...they are soooo good. we get them a lot more often now. and i still really havent gotten sick yet so thats really good (knock on wood) but im sure its just a matter of time.

 

on friday i had exchanges and went to a different area. i went to Elder polamalu"s area and spent the day doing work there. it was pretty nice to get out of San Rafael. it is SOO ghetto there haha but the area i went to was actually pretty nice (nice for honduras). it was fun to be with Elder P because everyone loves his personality and he gets into a lot of houses. when i was with polamalu my spanish was a lot better because i wasnt nervouse to talk to the people when i was with him because his spanish isnt that great. but i was able to really talk and have a conversationn..it was so awesome.

 

on saturday i got to baptize Edwin Zepeda, the son of the family we baptized last saturday. its awesome that ive got to get in the water twice already. but it was great to be able to complete that family. Edwin says that he wants to serve a mission and be like me...he really warmed up to me which is cool to make connections like that.

 

also...the animals here are crazy..animal planet needs to come film here. theres packs of dogs that all fight each other in the streets, and then a gang of pigs came in and started fighting the dogs and then some chickens got thrown in there too somehow. i wish i would have gotten a video haha.

 

anyways, i love you all so much. i love the letters. i get emails more often than dear elders so emails are probably better.

hope youre all doing well. Im so excited for mom and dad. i want some pics of them. they are gonna be awesome in germany. i cant wait to hear their stories. sorry i dont have more time to respond to everyone, but know that i lvoe you all so much.

 

con amor

elder archibald

Week 10

HEY FAMILY

alright, i dont have a lot of time so ill try to fit in all that i can
quick. some thigns i forgot to mention last time is that pres. flores
doesnt really speak english so thats another reason i have to learn
spanish quick. Elder Perez mumbles when he speaks spanish so its super
hard to understand...even the people here have a hard time
understanding him.
  Something thats pretty cool is all the missionaries getting trained
get DVD players to watch preach my gospel training videos. I love my
district here. there are a bunch of cool elders. one is Elder
Polamalu, his cousin is Troy Polamalu that plays for the Steelers. i
guess theres a video about him in the MTC by espn..you should check it
out.
   last pday was pretty crazy, being out shopping and all that in a
completely spanish world...its gonna take some getting used to for
sure. Its rains every day here so ive been pretty soaked most the
time. also there are gross pigs and dogs EVERYWHERE. i hate them haha.
BUT i still havent gotten sick at all yet. i{ve been good about the
water i use...mom would be proud. also my work for Colorado mosquito
control has paid off. i was washing my clothes in the pira (this
concrete tub) and i saw all these little things swimming
around...mosquitos. my companion had no idea what they were.. so we
are going to buy some stuff to kill them.
   Teaching is going great. lots of families progressing. we baptized
a family on saturday. the Zepeda Family. i got to baptize the Dad so
that was a really cool experience. there are also a lot of other
families progressing towards baptismal dates. the lord really does
prepare people to be taught.

Week 9 from Honduras

hola familia!!

   alright, strap in, i have a lot to write so there might be some errors haha. The flight to tegucigalpa was pretty good i couldnt sleep much but it ended up being alright. The landing into the Toncontin airport was CRAZY. super short and super hard. it was cool lookin out the window as we were flying in and seeing how the city sprawls out everywhere...it wasnt quite like mexico city but it was still pretty cool. Some parts of the city actually looked pretty nice, others were SO GHETTO. when we got off the plane we went through to customs. i was the first to get through and president flores and the APs were there to meet us. we got in the car and drove to the mission office. the streets are nuts here. so many dogs and crazy driving. When we got to the mission office we had a meeting about rules and all that other stuff for a few hours. I also had my first interview with president flores. he is awesome, i can tell that he has a lot of love for the missionaries and the work. I also ran into moms second cousin Elder Ray! that was kind of cool to meet him. After that we went to the mission home to meet president flores family and sister flores cooked us dinner. on the drive there, it was crazy, every single store had at least 1 or 2 armed gaurds out front with big shotguns or other kinds of rifles. After dinner we went to the APs house where all 13 of us newbies stayed the night. (all of these buildings so far arent in my mission boundaries haha). the next morning we got up and went back to the missio home to have breakfast and then we went to a stake center some other place to have the transfer meeting. There was a slideshow showing where everyone was going. my picture popped up in the San Rafael area in the Torocagua zone. and my companion is elder Perez. from guatemala...he speaks NO english haha. so family, your prayers were answered haha. After that we took a taxi to my area...it is one of the most poor areas in the whole mission...its nuts. we got to our apartment and then i unpacked and then we started teaching right away. San Rafael is set up in this valley with 2 cliffs. hills on either side and the houses go up these steep hills so it is a LOT of climbing and hiking...legit hiking. there isnt concrete or anything. we climb up these steps carved into the side of the cliff but a lot of the area doesnt even have steps. most of the houses have dirt floors, all of them have tin rooves. some are made out of concrete, and a lot are just pieces of wood nailed together...these people have basically nothing. the area is soooo poor, tons of dogs and pigs and chickens in the street... and soooo ghetto...AND I LOVE IT. its crazy to look out the window and see all these shacks. its so different and this is exactly what i wanted! we dont have any dinner appointments though because the people barely have enough money to feed themselves...so i havent had a native meals yet...just pb and j every day basically. im going shopping today to buy more food. Everyone here is so nice though, i definitely feel very welcomed. the bishop is an awesome guy and really cares about his ward. but there{s this one guy that we see all around. I{m pretty sure hes homeless and he is always drunk...he always comes up to me and shakes my hand and hangs on for way to long and gives me a big toothless smile and calls me amiguito...haha its weird. i always use hand sanitizer after. but its still so surreal to just look out and see this village in the jungle, and its home for the next 12 weeks.

    and as far as the missionary work is going, we had a baptism on saturday! Natalia Mejia, she is this 60 year old woman and is so nice. we have a family of 4 we are baptizing next weekend. and then we commited a family to baptism last night in their first lesson. The people here are so ready for the gospel. i love it. well i dont have much time so i{m gonna attache some photos. i love you all!!!!